There’s something about discovery that makes you feel important. You find a favorite restaurant, resort or champagne, and it’s exhilarating.

Nobody told you about it. It wasn’t advertised on TV, and you hadn’t read about it. You discovered it all by yourself, thereby making you feel like it’s yours.

That’s my attitude about Vanessa’s Bistro in Berkeley. My wife and I were out for dinner one night, looking for a new place on Solano Avenue. We spotted a restaurant worth trying, but there wasn’t a parking spot until one appeared two blocks later in front of Vanessa’s Bistro.

We didn’t even know this bistro existed. My wife jumped out of the car, read the menu by the front door, and said, “This looks good.” It was so good. We’ve been back since, tasting various small plates — Vietnamese tapas with a French twist.

Food is only part of the story at Vanessa’s. There’s also Vanessa Dang, a Vietnamese refugee who, in 1979, escaped the Communist takeover of her country by being smuggled out by boat with her husband and baby daughter.

Another person on that boat couldn’t swim and drowned. The other 37 made it to Thailand before Vanessa and her family, sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, headed for Oakland with no thought but freedom.

“I came with nothing,” Vanessa recalled. “I had no idea what I was going to do, but I’m a bold person.”

After having a second child with her husband, they divorced. She had a third child out of wedlock, but she hasn’t remarried, saying, “I think (once is) enough.”

As a single mom, she had four mouths to feed. She got a job in Oakland as a dishwasher-janitor at Le Cheval, where she stayed 13﻿1/2 years, learning the restaurant trade.

“This is what I wanted to do,” she said, “own the restaurant, become a chef, eat healthy, get people to know my cuisine — that’s been part of my life ever since.”

While at Le Cheval, she worked as a chef at the Bohemian Club in San Francisco and at Bridges in Danville. She also was a bartender at the Sound Factory across the Bay.

“Too many jobs,” she said. “Every day. I never see the sun. I never see my kids.”

But the experience was invaluable, and it led to her partnership at Le Rose Bistro in Berkeley. When that ended, she found a Chinese restaurant on Solano Avenue that she converted into Vanessa’s Bistro.

However, Vanessa isn’t the restaurant’s owner. Vi Nguyen, 29, the daughter who left Vietnam with her mother and father by boat, is the owner. Brother Michael Nguyen, 26, and stepbrother Jimmy Pham, 23, also work at the bistro in this truly family atmosphere.

Vanessa puts in more hours than her children. She’s off early in the morning to the market to buy the freshest ingredients — the bistro doesn’t have a freezer or microwave. Then it’s back to the bistro to start preparing the day’s menu, her job as the main chef. She returns home after work as late as 1 a.m.

“I have lots of energy,” she said. “I love it.”

She needs energy because she has one day off: Tuesday. The bistro is open noon to 2:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday for lunch, and 4 to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Monday for dinner.

“All my kids work just as hard as me,” she said, “only I take care of the food and they handle everything on the floor.”

Vi feels she works for her mother, not the other way around.

“That’s because she’s our mom,” Vi said.

“She’ll always have that control over her children, and their respect. I have to work four times harder just to compete with her. She’s a robot.”

Vi takes care of the bills, the paperwork and “the entire dining experience.” The brothers work for her, so naturally there is sibling rivalry, though it’s generally hidden from customers.

But there also is deep family affection.

“Seeing my family is something I look forward to every day,” Michael said.

“This is the closest our family has been together,” Jimmy said.

It all starts in the kitchen.

Dave Newhouse’s columns appear Monday, Thursday and Sunday, usually on the Metro page. Know any Good Neighbors? Phone 510-208-6466 or e-mail dnewhouse@bayareanewsgroup.com.

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